Sunday, February 27, 2011

Also on tap for the Monster Mania convention is a Night of the Demons reunion. I haven't seen this movie in years, but this definitely made it worth a revisit.

Night of the Demons is pure late 80s cheesiness at its finest. Endless stereotypes, corny overacting, and over the top effects. Also, of course, the story makes only vague sense, but wasn't that what the 80s was all about?

A group of high schoolers decide to ditch the Halloween dance and instead go party at an abandoned funeral home. What is pumped up to be the party of the year ends up being only ten people, with some stolen food and a boombox. Every stereotype possible is represented in this movie, including virginal goody two-shoes Judy (Cathy Podewell), token black guy Rodger (Alvin Alexis), token Asian gal Frannie (Jill Terashita), resident slut Suzanne (Linnea Quigley), fat sexist pig Stooge (Hal Havins), ditzy Helen (Allison Baron), guido Sal (Billy Gallo) and goth outcast Angela (Amelia Kinkade).

Everyone is drinking and having a blast when they decide to play some sort of crazy mirror game. Somebody sees a demon/ghoul/aberration/whatever and flips out. Helen and Rodger decide to split, while some of the couples take off to "explore" (each other, ha!) One by one, the teenagers get possessed by demons, resulting in gore and hilarity. The effects in this one were really fun and it was chock-full of the one liners that made the 80s so awesome.

I'm excited to see the actors at the upcoming con, and I may even consider checking out the remake ;)